A saucy cause to get behind.
By Jen | November 12, 2008
This tweet got me to thinking about how ridiculous it is that Tennessee is among a dwindling number of states that forbid the sale of wine in grocery stores.
The reason I was so excited about the Whole Foods renovation (beside the greater variety and the fact that their house brands are more affordable) is that I like to get all my provisions in one place. Before, I was having to divide my shopping between Wild Oats, Schnucks and The Fresh Market and the fact that all three stores are within a block of each other didn’t make things much easier.
And after rushing out of the grocery so our perishables don’t … um … perish, the last thing I’m thinking about is stopping by the liquor store for a bottle of vino. Even though Wine Market is en route, we’re usually reeling from the amount we’ve spent and none-too-inclined to drop twenty bucks more.
Why not take a step out of the process?
As someone who doesn’t start to feel buyer’s remorse until actually leaving the store, when it’s too late to say “Um, maybe I don’t need that after all – will you void it?” I feel like I’d be far more likely to splurge on a bottle of wine if I could put it in the cart with the rest of my groceries. Plus, recipes that call for wine are better with drinking wine instead of cooking wine (that’s a little pro-tip I gleamed from some fancy chef I know). One-stop shopping would mean saving money on fuel; and I can’t speak for everyone, but I’d probably go to bars less often (safer roads!). The state might get an economic boost from the additional sales tax we’d be paying (especially since grocery stores stay open longer) and since Gov. Bredesen warns that the state may be facing an $800 million dollar budget shortfall, that probably is a very good thing.
I did a little Googling and was reminded that I am not the only Tennesseean who feels this way. The CA a few months back reported on this very issue in March, and there is an organization called Red White and Food that is pushing for food stores to be allowed to sell wine. According to their blog, a state senate subcommittee will be having a hearing Monday to discuss wine legislation, including wine in retail food stores wherever “package sales” are allowed at the retailer’s discretion. I strongly recommend taking a look at Red White and Food’s blog because it contains a lot of valuable info.
I’m not getting too excited because, let’s face it, this is Tennessee. Remember the hubbub surrounding the lottery? This state is populated by quite a few self-righteous evangelical types bent on legislating morality, regardless of what grape beverage Christ made from water. Surely they’ll argue that easier access to wine will lead to widespread underage drinking, although I bet you’d be hard-pressed to find a teenager with a taste for tinto. Plain and simple, kids steal booze from their parents (Except for me, because neither my parents nor my friends’ ever had any booze).
I’m eager to see how this turns out. If you live in the Volunteer State and want to contact your legislators in support of this legislation, here is a link to do so. It’s about time Tennessee got with the program.
3 Comments
Melissa on 11.12.2008 at 7:53 pm.
Just a couple of ‘cons’ to go with your ‘pros’:
1. I work at a Wine & Spirits shop. If they pass this, I will probably lose my job. Since the grocery stores will probably carry the ‘bulk’ stuff, we’ll have to concentrate on the higher ends, and since our ‘workhorses’ are the bulk stuff, we will lose massive business.
2. Forget about customer service.
The 18 year old clerk at the grocery store isn’t going to know what goes better with your food. Nor is he going to carry out the case you just bought. Nor will they give you a discount for buying cases.
Just thought I’d inject from the Wine Store POV.
Cheers!
Jen on 11.12.2008 at 9:35 pm.
Y’know, I went back and forth on all those things. I think there will always be a place in the market for specialty stores for a couple reasons.
First the customer service aspect. People who don’t know what they want (and actually care what they end up taking home) aren’t going to get their wine from a self-service aisle at a grocery store. Because like you said they know that the pimply-faced kid stocking the bottles has no help to offer. I feel like a lot of these people who would benefit most from the ability to purchase wines at the grocery store just don’t buy wine right now. And the people who currently do aren’t likely to change their habits, especially if they’ve built a rapport with the people who sell them their booze.
Second, the liquor. Because you know it’ll be a cold day in hell when you can buy liquor in a Tennessee grocery store. NEVER. GONNA. HAPPEN. I’d venture to say – just as an example – if someone has to buy liquor AND wine, they’re going to get both in one place because you can only get the liquor at the spirits shop, and why not take advantage of the broader wine selection while you’re there? In fact I think people will generally prefer to go where there’s more selection. ie NOT that one aisle in the grocery.
Scott on 11.25.2008 at 7:33 pm.
Jen,
I’m the owner of Wine Market; thanks for the mention and thanks for your business. We’ve got some nice stuff from Spain and Argentina that won’t set you back twenty dollars, so don’t give up on us if Fresh Market put a big dent in the budget.
I think the one issue that is never raised in this conversation about putting wine in the grocery stores is one of what we want our communities to look and feel like.
One hears a lot about how we all wish we had neighborhood businesses where we can shop, and where we know the people there and they know us. This is thought to be immensely preferable to BigBox retail that facelessly scans us and processes us.
Melissa is right, and so are you. Some wine stores would survive by offering the specialty angle on wine, but we all depend on varying degree to selling the kind of wine that the grocery stores would take from us. More than half the stores in Memphis would not be able to make it. And the profits taken by out-of-state megacorporations that would have gone to Tennessee residents won’t be here to provide unemployment benefits to all those people put out of work.
Here’s hoping that the question can be resolved to everyone’s satisfaction….